What do you look for in a laptop? (It's not AI)

Honestly, battery life. And must work on linux. Finding that in a phsyical store is hard, they either don't list all specs or have models from the last 2 years mixed with the newest. Researched and bought online instead.

Having a mix of full-size ports, 1080p screen res(at least), and thin bezels to make the most use out of that small screen. I also prefer single gpu(for linux it's nicer too). A second GPU isn't typically that useful to me, and just creates heat. Most Intel Arc iGPUs do a fine job at video render and simple gaming(Palia). Another great video :)

For the kind of tasks I do, I prefer a 14 inch laptop with a performant processor, a backlit keyboard, and a decent amount of ram. AI and a Nvidia card are irrelevant for me. Where I live(Japan), the Fujitsu laptops are the ones I like more in terms of aesthetics but they are overpriced. Lenovo offers the most affordable laptops with good processors and a decent amount of ram.

My uefi samsung laptop died today 😢

The perfect laptop to me is both affordable and powerful, while being sturdy. I know all those 3 things do not go well together and it's always some sort of tradeoff you gotta make. I do think though that ThinkPads are very good value if you can get one of them, I personally got an E15 Gen 3 in 2022 for 700€ with an R5 5500U, 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD and I know i can replace the battery fairly easily and that i can replace one of the sticks of ram. Sure its not as quality as the rest, but I do still think it's a very decent laptop. If you need something robust and reliable, I do really like the T14 Gen 5 AMD model, not only because it was create in a cooperation with iFixit, which means no soldered ram, it also uses a non AI Ryzen chip with Zen 4 and it has plenty battery life to last you all day. I have one issues to me from my company (I requested the model and my request got approved) and I fell in love with it instantly. I really love it. You can even get it for 999€ at a store in Germany, when you take the fact that it does not come with an OS, and for that price that is one hell of a laptop!

What model is the lower-powered laptop you talked about?

I go with all points and to me the parts are upgradable. And after I got my X200 Thinkpad, I love the small compact design :D

It's 100% battery life for me, and though hard to hear myself say, what made me finally adapt to tablets. With near any 10" tablet being faster than a N4020, and with genuinely 12 hrs. of battery life, the touch keyboard is the only hurdle.

I haven't bought a new laptop in ten years. I'd want a 13" 1920x1080 screen (non touch), 32 GB of RAM and an upgradeable M.2 NVMe.
My preference is a thin Lenovo, heavily discounted LOL and a model that can be easily worked on.

When Windows 25H2 arrives this year, only Copilot+ PCs will get all the updates; everyone else gets the main updates, but not all the new features. You'll need an Intel Core Ultra or latest AMD CPUs. Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite CPUs have a built in NPU as well. There are Snapdragon powered laptops already.

AI on new laptops is just a gimmick, i look for good battery, robust build , decent performance and upgradability.

What I look for in a laptop is the history of reliance of how many have wound up in a repair shop, And to me Lenovo has a good track record of good reliable units.
the other things to take into account is the Processor core and thread count and you can get that info online from CPU bench marks or Notebook check. And that is how I came across Intel's Core I3 N305 that is in my current Laptop Acer Aspire 3 from 2023 - great performer in watching high resolution videos online - Snappy and responsive with Linux Mint, The only gripe I have with my new Acer is the cheap flimsy plastic that has developed a crack from the USB port to the top to the keyboard ... but other than that it's been great.

But I too have Two Lenovo's - a G50-80 and a Thinkpad E595 and so far they are good units...

Battery life is important to me as I spend a lot of time outside, relaxing in the garden! However, I always take a laptop on holiday with me, which means that I don't want a big heavy machine. I have a nice Lenovo L540 which meets both criteria. Right now I'm looking for a much smaller laptop, simply to watch videos on by the side of my main monitor.

My perfect laptop would have to be upgradeable, repairable, with great battery life and with good keyboard and display; thinness is not a mandatory concern if the above criteria are met 😊

And I feel quite hypocritical saying that as my current laptop is an M3 MacBook Air 😂 for better or worse, my current life priorities demand I put a premium on lightness and portability despite my preferences 😂

I mostly care about the Graphics performance and cost, hence i am tempted to get myself a Thinkpad T495 with a Ryzen 7 3700U

Large battery, slim size and with an medium power cpu

That if it is pre-installed with Windows, I can remove its putrescence from the storage media as quickly as possible (before it can phone home everything about me to Microsoft) and replace it with an adult's OS like Linux.

No one is doing 9+ hours of work away from an AC outlet or charger. If you are you are using it wrong. Use a car charger or run it on AC if at home. If you are at school or university they don't attend 9 hours a day and classes taken per day don't add up to even 6 hours of computing time. You can also use a battery bank to top up a laptop battery and those can easily be carried in a backpack or bag.

16GB RAM minimum, CPU and less than 15 inches.

For me it's screen size resolution.
Next is battery life
Then keyboard
Im looking for long life, i bought a Dell G7 gaming laptop, I never play games.

the thing that i do i always look for a laptop with the recently windows, 16GB RAM, 225 GB ROM and a good processor. it can be a Intel core i5 4th generation. and that's enough for me. Why i want the AI on my laptop?